Brooklyn has lost another credible, vibrant music venue with the shuttering of Park Slope bar Southpaw. Owner and founder Mikey Palms credits Southpaw’s demise with the current trend in the bar’s neighborhood towards more family-friendly fare. “I’m kind of over Park Slope — it’s not a destination for nightlife anymore,” Palms told NY Eater last month. Southpaw had been a staple in the neighborhood since 2001. Past performers included Joan Jett, Roky Erikson, Bill Callahan, Cat Power, Built to Spill, Dave Chapelle, Frank Black, The Dirtbombs and many others.

The venue’s few remaining shows will take place next weekend with the “Brooklyn County Fair: 3 Nights of Great Country Music” event February 17-19 and a final closing event on February 2o. The final closing event is an early, free event entitled “Southpaw: End of an Era” and will feature a live interview and slide show, DJ sets, and “brief” performances by Artifacts, Jean Grae, Keith Murray and Masta Ace.

Several hundred years ago, when a fella by the name of William Shakespeare wrote the lines “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate blah blah blah,” he could’ve been referring to many things. Perhaps your English teachers will tell you, “This is a sonnet to a man, and that’s it! It’s not about a woman, it’s not about a cat, and it’s definitely not about a limited-edition Lou Barlow cassette release from the late 80s getting reissued as a self-released Sentridoh album!!!!” But they would be wrong. Because Will Shakespeare was a man who understood BEAUTY. And what could be more lovely than a limited-edition Lou Barlow cassette release from the late 80s getting reissued?

See, back in 1987-88, Lou Barlow’s first solo noodlin’s were released as Weed Forestin’ on two runs of cassettes, as new tracks were added. The total release consisted of a mere 100 tapes — some of which were sold, some of which were given away. (True fact: in Boston, several copies were given away for free with Barlow’s band Dinosaur Jr.’s masterpiece You’re Living All Over Me, which came out around the same time.) Barlow and drummer Eric Gaffney billed themselves as Sentridoh and a thing of beauty was born. In 1988, the band became Sebadoh, with the release of Freed Man. In 1989, Homestead Records signed Sebadoh and released a vinyl version of Weed Forestin’ under the group’s new name. The next year, the first Sebadoh record — a combo of Freed and a “clumsily-edited” (Lou’s words) version of Weed — was released on CD. In 2007, Domino put out a spiffed-up version of Freed, but Weed still languished… until 2012 when Barlow and pal Maxwell Wood decided to do a deluxe LP reissue of Weed Forestin’, complete with unreleased material and tape collages on a cassette called Child of the Apocalypse. Fans will also get a USB drive with both Weed and Child and short music-inspired films by British artist Daryl Waller.

The digital version is out now via Bandcamp. Fans can cop handmade double CDs and cassettes on March 6. The deluxe LP and regular LP hit stores March 27.

Three stages + 50 hip-hop artists = 89 billion kazillion blunts in the air. You owe it to hip-hop to partake in such a high-flying good time if you’re in the San Bernadino area on April 7, where Wu-Tang and Odd Future are sure to incite mosh pits aplenty amid a Supreme-wearing crowd who know a thing or two about throwing their W’s up. Three 6 Mafia, Brother Ali, and that wee little white boy Mac Miller have just been added to the line-up, for those of you who like your hip-hop a little more underground, or in the case of the Mac, a little more Pittsburgh-y.

Co-founder and dreads-tastic emcee MURS assures us, “With 50 artists spread out across three stages, there is guaranteed to be something for everyone.” As you can see from the full line-up listed below, he is continuing the Paid Dues tradish of keepin’ it trill as fuck.

Tickets are on sale for the Paid Dues Independent Hip-Hop Festival. Head to Ticketfly to cop that shit, mane… and maybe start upping your stash of the sticky icky now, so you’re ready to smoke screen the NOS Event Center on April 7.

I’m hardly an authority when it comes to film, and I’m even less of an authority when it comes to animated film, excepting any discussion that revolves around the social and political commentary present in that mid-90s example of comedic versatility, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. Certainly, this isn’t indicative of an inherent disinterest on my part — just that I can’t be bothered to immerse myself in a new art form when I’m already preoccupied by other, more intellectual forms of creative expression. Kitten videos! Can there ever be too many?

It takes a Pixar sponsorship, or an event like the one that occurred at the 48th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival, to really spur my interest in animated film. It was at the latter where Flying Lotus first performed his live score of Harry Smith’s acclaimed 66-minute animated collage Heaven and Earth Magic, which was completed in 1962. On February 28, he’ll be reprising that performance at The Cinefamily in Los Angeles.

For those who are geographically fortunate enough to be able to experience this event, expect a complete diversion from the hip-hop-tinged sound characterizing his formal albums; while the usual instruments (laptop, drum machine, turntables, synthesizer) are all incorporated, the sound (from what I’ve gathered watching amateur video on YouTube) more accurately reflects the abstract nature of its film counterpart. In any case, unless Mr. Lotus decides to commit this performance to record, this will, in all likelihood, be one of the only chances you have of hearing this side of his musical self. Go on Steven, tell us how you feel.

Are you stoked to hear there will be lots more John Lydon in your life soon? Well, you probably don’t have much else going on, so you might as well buy into it and give this day’s version of PiL a chance when they release their first album in 20 years this May or June. But, before you can get your grubby, fat fingers to press play in the cloud, you can get a preview of what’s to come with “One Drop”. Go ahead, take a listen. I’ll wait…

Yes, you heard him right. Lydon is a self-proclaimed “ageless” teenager. So, now you know what’s in store. “One Drop” will appear on a Record Store Day EP ahead of the new full-length, This Is PiL.

To think, WU LYF were hardly more than a mysterious Tumblr presence about a year ago. Now, look at those boys! They’re like a real band that plays concerts and has a record out called Go Tell Fire to the Mountain and has pictures proving that its members are real human beings and not just collages of mountains and fire. It’s cute, is what it is. They also do a lot of unintelligible shouting, which is pretty cool but really not all that cute. A puppy would never shout at you.

But a puppy would never tour the United States in the spring of 2012 either. Hello, that was a transition. WU LYF are coming to the United States next spring, so that they can shout at you and you can shout back. “NOH MATTAHH WHUUT TAHEAY SAEH, DOLLAH IZ NAWT YORE FRAYEND,” they shout. “NOH MATTAHH WHUUT TAHEAY SAEH, DOLLAH IZ NAWT YORE FRAYEND,” you shout back. It’s a beautiful sight of terror, but also, yeah, a little adorable.